Biosafety condition survey of health care workers from two Buenos Aires city centers

STANGANELLI C.; GOLDSTEIN DE FINK S

Porto Alegre

Congreso; IX CONGRESSO BRASILEIRO DE BIOSSEGURANÇA.; 2015

ASSOCIAÇÃO NACIONAL DE BIOSSEGURANÇA

Biosafety condition survey of health care workers fromtwo Buenos Aires city centersStanganelli Carmen1,3, Fink Susana2,31 Instituto de Investigaciones Hematológicas,Academia Nacional de Medicina2 Instituto de Medicina Experimental IMEX. CONICET-AcademiaNacional de Medicina3 Comité de Bioseguridad de los Institutos, Academia Nacional deMedicina.Buenos Aires. ArgentinaWe initiated a Biosafetyrelated subject?s survey in two groups of healthcare workers (HCW) from BuenosAires city (CABA), one from public hospitals and another of residents of ourinstitution. We have surveyed 45 people so far: 88.4% medical doctors, 4.7% speech therapists, 2.3% psychiatrists; 4.7% laboratory technicians.Questions without replies (NR) are indicated between parentheses. By law, inArgentina Hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccine must be offered to HCW: 93.3% wasvaccinated (3NR) for HBV. Almost 5% received 1 dose, 12.2% 2 doses, 80.5% 3doses and 2.4% 7 doses (4 NR). Only 61% underwent post vaccination evaluation(4NR). In CABA public hospitals HCW are offered the anti-Hepatitis A virus vaccine:31.1% received this vaccine (31 NR). Other vaccinations: Diphteria +Tetanus(DT) 6,7%, tetanus: influenza: 82.2%, rubella+yellow fever: 6.7%, yellow fever+DT 7.2%. Biosafety training had been taken by 57.8% (2NR) of the HCW surveyed.Accident registration procedures are available to 84.4% (2 NR) of the surveyedHCW,  46,7% suffered accidents, being 33.3%with biological exposure,  73.3% reportedaccidents by others in their work environment, 61.4% involving biological material.Personal protectionequipment (PPE) use: 84.4% (1NR) button their lab coats, 29.5% (1 NR) wearscrubs or work clothing from home, even in public transportation; 34.1% (1NR)carry lab coats hanging from the arm; 46.7% (1NR) wear lab coats in cafeterias;24.4% (4NR) use the same lab coat at the hospital and for their privatepractice; 60% (2 NR) use PPE and 68.9% disinfect regularly their working area.Gloves are worn by 84.4% (7 NR) of the HCW when their hands come in contactwith biological fluids.No statisticalassociation was observed between accidents and sex or age. Even though this isa small sample, results show that there is room for improvement in severalareas, mostly with behavior modification without requiring great investments.